Q&A: Are there any safe, portable heaters for my baby's room?

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"I have worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner (P.N.P.) for over 30 years," says Linda Jonides. "I continue to thoroughly enjoy forming new relationships with parents and newborns and working with them through infancy, childhood, and adolescence."

Linda Jonides is a pediatric nurse practitioner in a private pediatric practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her Diploma in Nursing and Certificate as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a past recipient of the Michigan PNP of the Year Award. She has a B.S. in Nursing from Eastern Michigan University. She has published articles and lectured on childhood obesity, infant colic, role of the P.N.P., growth and development issues, and infectious diseases. She was an author of "Clinical Insights Column," published biannually in the Journal of Pediatric Health Care for nine years. Jonides is past president of NAPNAP. Currently, she is a steering group work member of NAPNAP's HEAT (healthy eating and activity together) project. One outcome of this group's work is the clinical practice guideline, "Identifying and Preventing Overweight in Childhood," that was published as a supplement to the March/April '06 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Health Care.

Ms. Jonides has been married to John, a university professor, since 1971.

Question

Our home is heated via wood stove during the winter, but I do not believe that it will keep my 7-month-old son warm enough. Do you know of any testing that has been done on portable heating systems that would be safe in a child's room?

Answer

Safety is the main concern with any type of portable heating system. Your baby is probably already mobile and could touch the heater and get burned. The trick is to place a portable heater in a position where it provides heat but isn't accessible to your baby. Parents often place portable heaters on the floor of their infant's room and then forget to remove it when the baby starts crawling and walking, leading to accidents.To my knowledge, there is no one system that is better than another. As another safety reminder, be sure to install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors if you don't already have them in place.

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